Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage-u

v2018.108  Aug 8, 2017

Priority: Low

2018.108 adds left/center/right positioning options for image info (under prints) and fixes prints occasionally disappearing from live view after double-clicking to edit.

Mike

I haven't been printing much lately, but I have been doing updates to Qimage on a regular basis.  I have an Epson P400 printer and I always print on 8 1/2 X 11 Glossy photo paper.  Mostly I print 4 X 6 or 5 X 7 and occasionally 4 X 7.111 which is 16 X 9 format.  Yesterday when I printed some 4 X 6 prints, I noticed the top edge of the prints had a redish stripe across the entire page.  I tried printing with a couple of other programs and got no stripe.  The other print programs started the prints a little farther down the page.

So I went into Qimage Edit, Preferences, Print & page formatting, page margins.  The Top Fixed margin is 0.1167 as was the Total.  I changed the Total to 0.25 and the problem disappeared. 
I think your default top margin is a little low for the Epson P400.

Hi Mr Pratt,
I assume the P 400 is the same as SC P400?
What size paper did you tell your printer you were using, still 8.5 x 11?
What size prints were giving you the problem.?
How many per page and how placed?
** The Margin adjustments should really be left at default. Those are for specialty pages like a book page.

Please answer the above questions, or set your driver to Default settings using the icon shown in the screen snap attached.
I suspect that should fix it.
Also reset the margins to default.
Let me know please
Fred

The fixed margins come from the driver and they should generally not be changed (you shouldn't add additional margins unless you need them for a particular custom setup).  If the other programs started farther down the page, it could be that your printer has a physical (hardware) issue with printing near the top of the page.  Since the driver reports that it should be able to print .1167 inches from the top of the page, if it has trouble printing there, it's likely a printer problem because Epson has identified that it should be able to print there.

Regards,
Mike

Yes, I have the SC P400 printer, I am using 8 1/2 X 11 photo paper and I told the printer 8 1/2 X 11.
I have the problem when printing anything, single or multiple pages.  It fails on the top two 4 X 6 prints, on the top 5 X 7 print or on both 4 X 7.111 prints.  I let qimage place the pictures.  The redish strip is on any picture at the top of the 8 1/2 X 11 page.  The stripe is about 1/8 inch wide.  The picture still appears in that 1/8 inch but it has a redish tint to it.

I have had this printer for about a year now but this problem just showed up recently.  Prior to this I had no problem printing anything.  I know Epson has updated the driver a few times since I got the printer.  Maybe they caused the problem.  The current driver is v6.75.

I'm happy with the change I made and do not want to make further changes for fear that it could take me many hours to get back to a working Qimage.  I only use this printer for printing various size photos on 8 1/2 X 11 photo paper.

After doing some serious measuring, I found when the top margin is set to default of 0.1167, the picture actually starts printing at about 3.25/64 inch or 0.0578 from the top of the page.  The bad area is about 6.5/64 inch or 0.1016 from the top of the page.  At 0.1167 or 7.5/64 inch from the top of the page, the picture is perfect.

When I change the Total top margin to 0.25, I actually get 1/4 inch before the picture starts printing.

When you get the red stripe, do you see that if you do a print preview, or does the preview look normal?

This is a great question!!!
Fred

The preview looks normal.  The problem is that even though Qimage is set to print with a top margin of 0.1167, it is actually starting the print at 0.0578 from the top.

Can you show a snap of these?

Verify that you are not in poster mode.
Fred

I am not in poster mode.  The attached picture was printed 5 X 7 on a 8 1/2 X 11 photo paper.  I cut off the right side and bottom before I scanned it.  I am happy with the change I made to the Top Margin - it solves my problem.  I don't have time to continue responding to this issue.  I only reported it so others who may have the same problem can solve it.

Thank you for reporting it.
We would have liked to solve it for you especially in light of the fact that No One else out of thousands has reported such an issue.

Fred

I can see banding in the top left corner of the image on the bright green area. It looks like ink is not feeding properly when printing starts.
That's not the best way to solve a printer problem, it's definitely not QU issue.

Have you done a nozzle check print?
Terry

^ This

That looks like a classic ink starvation problem.  If I had to guess, I'd say it's probably the cyan channel not firing in that region or possibly black.  Are you using third party inks or Epson OEM?  Definitely do a nozzle check but do it "cold": after the printer has been idle for a while and not just after printing.

Regards,
Mike

This problem never happens when I increase the Top Margin to 0.25.  It only happens with the default of 0.1167 and would not happen there if Qimage actually started the print at 0.1167 instead of starting it at 0.051 when using the default.  I am using Epson ink.

That is irrelevant to the actual problem.  Qimage cannot print on portions of the paper that the driver does not allow; it cannot override the driver with margins that are less than the "Fixed" margins shown in QU's Margins dialog.  If the driver is allowing any software to print on that portion of the paper, all the inks should be working in that region.  Otherwise you have a physical problem with the printer.

If you look at the page margins in QU, make sure all "additional" margins are set to zero, then print.  If your "Fixed" margin shows .1167 in the QU margins dialog and you are actually getting .051, you have a paper feed problem because the driver will not allow anything to print short of the "Fixed" margin no matter what data you send to it.

By setting your top margin to 0.25, you are just bandaiding the paper feed problem and as a result, you'll lose vertical printable area.  Your bottom margin will be larger than what it should be as well.  One way you could prove this one way or the other is to print a "Fit to Page" size print (with crop on).  Your print size should be the printable area for the P400 so the print should be 8.266 x 10.766.  Your top margin should be .1167 and the bottom margin should be .1181.  If you end up getting an 8.266 x 10.766 print but the top margin is smaller (.05) and the bottom margin is larger (.185), you'll know the paper is not feeding properly.

Mike